Fiddle Tools that I Still Use
August 16, 2024
I’ve been practicing the fiddle for over five years (on and off), and have tried many different books, methods, and online schools during this time. I’m always searching for a way to stick to my practice and keep things interesting.
However, I’ve learned that there’s no way to practically use every single book and method you come across, even if they seem like they might spice up a practice session. I want to talk about a few tools that even after all these years, I still come back to regularly.
Essential Elements for Strings
The Essential Elements for Strings, including the EEI website, is still a core practice route for me. I started with this series of books – I own book 1 and book 2 – and I highly recommend it.
The books are great, but the most important element is the online practice dashboard. You get this for free along with the book, and it includes a few videos – but most importantly, all of the songs and drills with backing tracks to play along with. The online dashboard has a LOT of options for playback, too, such as with or without metronome, tempo controls, melody on or off, and different music styles of backing tracks.
I really can’t recommend this enough – it’s been a foundational learning series for me, and it comes at a very low price considering what else is out there.
Sight Reading Factory
One struggle I’ve always had with playing an instrument is wanting to keep brushed up on my sight reading. When I learn a song, I end up memorizing how to play it without the need of looking at the notation. This is great, except, it doesn’t help reinforce practice for sight reading.
Sight Reading Factory fixes all this for me, and it’s something I use every time I do a full practice. Basically, you select a difficulty and an instrument (it has a lot of instruments to choose from!) and you receive a randomized passage of music based on that to play.
This might not seem very exciting on first glance, but the fact that it’s different every time, and challenges me to play based on different notation is very important to my learning. What I do is practice the passage on my own, then listen to the recording to see if I got it right.
I can do this with as many passages as I like, and will not run across any that are the same.
While this is something I do pay a yearly cost for, the $35 is well worth it for the skills I feel I’m building by practicing reading notation in this way. Highly recommended if you are like me, and tend to just memorize things as you practice them.
Online Method Subscriptions
I know that most folks will tell you that you shouldn’t try to learn fiddle/violin without a teacher of some sort. I’ve never had direct instruction with my practice, mostly because there are no in-person teachers in the area, and I’m not keen on spending a bunch of money on Skype lessons.
I have taken “lessons” in the form of online methods and learning schools. I think there’s a lot of value to be hand with some of these schools, especially the ones that integrate video feedback and group video sessions with the cost of entry.
However, I’ve discovered that these online methods usually cost me more than I want to pay because I’m simply not moving through them very quickly. I tend to practice a song for at least a few weeks, sometimes a month or more if it requires it. If I’m paying something like $20 a month to stay subscribed to this online method (and that’s on the cheaper end), then I’m basically paying $20 to practice one song.
Sure, I could practice more than one song each month, and I do. I just usually select from a few different sources to keep things interesting. So, in the long run, I don’t find online subscriptions cost effective for me, since I don’t have the time to get deeply involved in the communities that surround them.
For some of the methods I no longer subscribe to, I have downloaded the available content there (videos/PDFs) to reference after the fact. I figure being subscribed to that site for as many months as I had – as much money as I did pay during that subscription - since that content was offered to me, I will keep digital files for my own use.
The one fiddle method I’ve come back to after all these years is AFM. I feel like the difficulty progression of the song selections is quite balanced, and the price is very competitive for what it offers.
While I still use other learning tools and enjoy other books, these are the top of my list that I come back to, even after all this time!